Insurance win in the north

WE'VE had a major win in the long battle for a fair deal on insurance premiums, and for the first time in a long time, we are going to see some premiums in North Queensland coming down.Major insurer Suncorp have announced today that they are introducing their own measures to reduce insurance premiums.This is a direct result of the battle that Member for Leichardt Warren Entsch and I have been waging against unaffordable insurance in the North over the past four years.Suncorp’s package of initiatives called Protecting the North also flagged savings on strata title insurance.I did a lot of work fighting for a fairer deal on strata insurance as well, especially for Airlie Beach residents.Strata units must have insurance so they were compelled to pay the high premiums which followed when we were hit with a number of extreme weather events from 2008 onwards.That’s why I focussed particularly on strata insurance at the beginning of this fight, but it was not long before high premiums were felt on all insurance products.Suncorp's package of initiatives include;

• homeowners can improve older homes and achieve savings of 20 per cent on premiums ;
• undertake a retrofit on older homes to deliver insurance savings;
• a new direct strata insurance product offering savings of about 20 per cent;
• a new product for low income earners of contents cover from $4 a week.

This is a great step forward and I congratulate Suncorp on taking a proactive approach on this. I hope to see more insurance companies following suit.